Tropic of Cancer

A line of latitude, currently 23° 26'
22" north of the Equator, which marks
the northern boundary of the tropics. It
indicates the farthest north position at which the Sun appears directly
overhead at noon. The Sun is vertically overhead
at the Tropic of Cancer on June 21–22, the summer solstice
in the Northern Hemisphere. The line is so-called because when it was named
the Sun was, in its position in the sky, in the constellation Cancer
at the June solstice. Due to the precession of the equinoxes,
the Sun now falls in the constellation Taurus
at the June solstice.